I thought we could start something related to Irene and maybe even some "old" hurricane stories, to wile the time away until she gets here. Gather round the campfire and we'll have a rousing chorus of "Good Night, Irene, Good Night, Irene, I'll see you in my dreams"!

I'll start. Back in 1954, when I was only 2 1/2, we had a hurricane that hit the Connecticut shore. I don't believe they even named them back then. Anyway, my mother's parents were living with us back then and my mom left me with them and took my 8 year old brother with her to the train station to collect my dad ahead of the storm. While they were gone the local National Guard showed up at the house and insisted we had to be evacuated. My grandfather swung his cane at them and refused to go, but we finally had to - leaving the kitchen table all set up with food. When my mom, dad and brother got home we were nowhere to be found. Turned out we'd been taken to the local armory with a large number of others. A short while later we ended up at our minister's house for overnight. My two old lady cousins in the house next door to ours hid and rode out the storm. Wish I had!

__________________What we have once enjoyed we can never lose.
All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.
Helen Keller

When we went cross counntry our first stop was Hurshy PA. We were watching a show and kept hearing thunder, we thought it was part of the show. When we got out of the show we discovered that the amuzement park that was next to the Chocolate World where we were had been evacuated to where we were. Guards were at all the doors and would not let anyone out or even close to the windows. There had been tornatos spotted in the area. It was scary.

STAY SAFE Cilla...don't do anything silly will'ya, you got a basement perhaps using it would be a good idea!!!

__________________
"To the Horsehead Nebula and back we shall make beautiful music"..."Together!"

The stories of childhood leave an indelible impression,and their author always has a niche in the temple of memory from which the image is never cut out to be thrown on the rubbish heap of things that are outgrown and outlived........Howard Pyle

H.S., I don't do anything silly where hurricanes are concerned! We are well prepared, even have a gas powered generator for after if the power goes out (which I expect). Lots of batteries, flashlights, non-perishable foods, water, etc. Oh, and plenty of cat food and cat treats!

__________________What we have once enjoyed we can never lose.
All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.
Helen Keller

For living in Missouri, hundreds of miles from any ocean, I've been fairly close to a hurricane, twice. The first time was when I was about 10 or so. We went to Florida on vacation and were pretty well hotel bound for almost 3 days while it stormed. I was pretty sick from sunburn for part of the time anyway, but the storm was part of a hurricane that was brushing the Florida coast. We weren't in the direct path, but it was bad enough.

The second time was Lackland, Texas in 1967. I was just out of basic training in the US air Force, and was awaiting orders. They had me on area guard (the sort of duty they gave us to keep us from having fun just sitting around) and I could actually see the leading edge of the rainstorm come across the base right at me that turned out to be the tailwinds of Hurricane Beulah. When I left for Illinois 3 days later, it was still raining.

We got a lot of storms around here in 2008, thanks to Hurricane Ike. I've posted pictures of the water running in usually dry creekbeds around here.

__________________All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.

This area routinely gets the tail ends of anything that comes up the east coast. We get high winds and heavy rains, trees down, flooding, power outtages... which we can get during a bad thunderstorm cell moving through, or a Nor'easterner, or a major blizzard. We deal, and move ahead.

I think it was during Hurricane Bob that I was in the barn, madly clipping my show cows (6) before the power went out. I didn't finish and went to the fair with one less cow. that's also the one where my dad and I, fans of storm produced destruction, drove around the "block" to see downed trees. Not the smartest thing we've ever done.

Hurricane Gloria I was quite small and remember carrying all the toys I cared about down to the basement in case we had to go down there. We didn't. And all my toys were now down there. I was very cross about having to carry them back up. I also remember everything in the freezer melting because we were out of power for quite some time.

__________________You can take me down, you can show me your home.
Not the place where you live, but the place where you belong.
~Toad the Wet Sprocket

Well, Irene is "only" a tropical storm now. She has still caused a lot of trouble around here, mainly due to flooding. There was a mudslide that took out three houses across the river in Troy...no one got hurt, thank goodness! (HOW no one got hurt, the fire crew is still trying to figure out.) Lost a few bridges, and one of the dams...another one over-flowed, but the dam itself is still intact.

We took a walk over to the river this afternoon, to see how high it is. Originally, they said it would crest in this area around 2. Now some reports are saying 7pm. My former roommate was evacuating when we went to check on her. Her, 3 weiner dogs, a cat, her brother's two dogs and her stepson are headed to the son's grilfriend's for a day or two. There are three apartments in the house. Bill (brother) is staying, and so is the other tenent...unless, of course, they can't get in later....

Our power was out from 9 am Sunday to 7 pm Wednesday. We just got internet and tv back this evening. We were very lucky. We only lost one small ornamental tree in the yard. Others were not so fortunate, there were many trees down all around the area. In the town we used to live, a 30 ft sailboat broke it's mooring and ended up on someone's front lawn! Also, two towns away, 4 homes right on the shore were completely washed into the sea.

__________________What we have once enjoyed we can never lose.
All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.
Helen Keller

Our power was out from 9 am Sunday to 7 pm Wednesday. We just got internet and tv back this evening. We were very lucky. We only lost one small ornamental tree in the yard. Others were not so fortunate, there were many trees down all around the area. In the town we used to live, a 30 ft sailboat broke it's mooring and ended up on someone's front lawn! Also, two towns away, 4 homes right on the shore were completely washed into the sea.

Oh my glad to hear you are safe, and reading some of this has given an idea or two